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Physicists Find One-in-10-Billion Decay of Beauty Particle
Confirmed
In Short: A Cambridge University-led team of physicists has discovered evidence of the rarest subatomic particle decay ever observed, a beauty quark decay that occurs once in every ten billion events.
A Cambridge University-led team of physicists has discovered evidence of the rarest subatomic particle decay ever observed, a beauty quark decay that occurs once in every ten billion events.
The discovery, announced at a seminar at CERN on November 3, 2026, marks the first time such a decay has been detected using data from a single experiment.
The LHCb Collaboration at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has been hunting for this decay since 1984, and the finding is consistent with the predictions of the Standard Model of particle physics.
Harry Cliff, LHCb’s Rare Decays Convener and analysis co-lead, explained, “Seeing evidence for this rare decay is incredibly exciting, opening up new possibilities to probe beyond the direct reach of the LHC.”
The precision required to detect this decay is immense, as it involves picking muons out of an overwhelming background noise.
The discovery suggests that finding physics beyond the current understanding might come through indirect evidence in decay patterns rather than direct particle production, similar to how charm and top quarks were identified.
What this adds
The discovery of this rare decay does not directly address the broader questions about the imbalance between matter and antimatter in the universe, but it provides valuable insights into the behavior of subatomic particles.
The research team’s success in detecting this rare decay event underscores the importance of continued investment in high-precision particle physics experiments.
What's confirmed
- A Cambridge University-led team of physicists has discovered evidence of the rarest subatomic particle decay ever observed, a beauty quark decay that occurs once in every ten billion events.
- The discovery, announced at a seminar at CERN on November 3, 2026, marks the first time such a decay has been detected using data from a single experiment.
- The LHCb Collaboration at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has been hunting for this decay since 1984, and the finding is consistent with the predictions of the Standard Model of particle physics.
- The precision required to detect this decay is immense, as it involves picking muons out of an overwhelming background noise.
- The discovery suggests that finding physics beyond the current understanding might come through indirect evidence in decay patterns rather than direct particle production, similar to how charm and top quarks were identified.
What's still developing
- Comparatively, physicists today are probing distances 10 billion times smaller than an atom.
- But it gives scientists useful information about where to look next, and which particles might be found when the LHC's successor starts work in the second half of this century.
- After more than 40 years of effort, scientists have effectively fastened a knocker on the door of the zeptoverse, offering experimental evidence of an exceedingly elusive, unstable type of particle decay.
- Called the "zeptoverse," it may harbor undiscovered particles or forces existing at zeptometer scales, thousands of trillions of times thinner than a human hair, and cosmos-shaping quantum actions across time spans that are unimaginably small.
- Tuesday, September 29, 2026 · 2:03 PM ET In Short: Theoretical physicists have proposed a novel method of black hole decay that could result in the formation of a boson star, according to a study published in ScienceAlert.
- The research team, including José Ferreira, Carlos Herdeiro, Eugen Radu, and Miguel Zilhão from the University of Aveiro in Portugal, found that this decay process is possible due to a resonance mechanism that allows the scalar field and the black hole's horizon to remain in equilibrium.
- Black holes, typically considered eternal under standard general relativity, could potentially decay through a mechanism that ejects their 'hair'—a term used to describe the scalar field surrounding them—leaving behind a fully functional boson star.
- Black holes, known for their extreme conditions, offer unique opportunities for physicists to explore forms of matter and fields that are otherwise difficult to detect.
- This phenomenon takes place just once in every ten billion decay events, representing odds considerably lower than winning the lottery.
- The achievement follows four decades of searching since scientists first began pursuing this elusive particle behaviour in the 1980s.
- According to the Standard Model of particle physics, electrons and positrons should be nearly perfect mirror images of one another.
- Using tuned microwave pulses, they triggered and observed single jumps between cyclotron levels and single flips of the particle’s spin.